Upstart Press Ltd was founded in 2013 by Kevin and Pat Chapman, with Warren Adler as publisher, Craig Violich, designer, and Jane Hingston, editor, in bright new offices on Auckland’s North Shore. Within the first two years, Upstart Distribution was added, operating out of Penrose and fulfilling orders not only for Upstart but for other NZ publishers as well.

Upstart Press publishes a wide variety of New Zealand books, including fiction, non-fiction, and children’s. (Click here for forthcoming titles). Our sports titles are published under the new imprint of Mower.

Upstart Press publishes around 20 new titles each year. In 2015, Dan Carter: My Story was the biggest selling book in New Zealand (by volume and value), and in 2016, Richie McCaw 148 was the bestselling title be value.

Kevin Chapman has been in book publishing for over thirty years, working in New Zealand, the UK, Canada, the US, and Australia. He has worked in general trade publishing and book packaging, and prior to starting Upstart Press was Managing Director of Hachette NZ (previously Hodder Moa Beckett) for over fifteen years. Kevin has been heavily involved in publishing industry activities for many years. You can find him on Twitter here.

Patricia Chapman, Director

Pat has been in book publishing since the mid-1970s, first at Dunmore Press in Palmerston North, then as Publishing Consultant to the Development Finance Corporation in Wellington. During extensive overseas travel she worked for a number of companies, including Virgin Books, Andromeda Oxford, and Harlequin Mills & Boon. She’s also had a number of years in the education sector, both as a primary and secondary teacher in Auckland. You can follow Pat on Twitter here.

Warren Adler, Publisher

Warren Adler came into book publishing in the late 1970s after beginning his working life as a journalist for the New Zealand Press Association. Warren has a special interest in sports publishing — he has worked on close to 300 New Zealand sports books since 1979 — but has also commissioned widely in the fields of history, humour and general New Zealand non-fiction.